2010 in organized crime

Around the world are countless groupings of individuals who deal exclusively or through a mix of legitimate and illegal activities. These Organized crime groups or criminal organizations are a transnational grouping of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for the purpose of generating a monetary profit. The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (federal statute - Public Law 09-351) states, "Organized crime means the unlawful activities of members of a highly organized, disciplined association..."^[1] They are called a number of different names including: Mafia (US, Italy), Yakuza (Japan), Chinese Triads, the Irish Mob, the Neapolitan Camorra, the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, the Indian Mafia, the Unione Corse, Serbian Mafia, and the Bulgarian mafia.

There are also a number of localized mafia organizations around the world bearing no link to any specific racial background. One example of a criminal organization that bears no specific racial background is the United Nations gang; the name alludes to the various ethnic origins of the members and its welcoming of all nationalities into its membership.^[2]

Around the world in 2010 a number of events have taken place in the organized crime world. On the very first day of the year reporter Jose Luis Romero was kidnapped for reporting on the Mexican mafia. While investigating the kidnapping police man Jesus Escalante was killed. Due to the Mexican Drug War Mexico is one of the most active countries for organized crime activity. The Mexican Drug War is an armed conflict taking place between rival drug cartels and government forces in Mexico. Although Mexican drug cartels, or drug trafficking organizations, have existed for quite some time, they have become more powerful since the demise of Colombia's Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States.^[3] Arrests of key cartel leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, have led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States.^[4][5][6]

Events

January

• January 1 - Jose Luis Romero, a crime reporter for the Linea Directa radio station, is kidnapped in Los Mochis, a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, allegedly due to his reporting on Mexico's drug production and trafficking. Jesus Escalante, the chief of investigations for the Sinaloa state police, starts an investigation later that day, and is killed by gunmen a few hours later.^[7][8]
• January 2 - Indian Police Service Assistant Commissioner of Police Prakash Wani, along with four other police officers, is suspended after a video circulated showing them dancing with underworld members at a Christmas Eve party hosted by India crime boss Chotta Rajan in Mumbai's Chembur suburb.^[9][10]
• January 2 - The funeral is held for Nick Rizzuto Jr ., who was shot to death on December 18, 2009. His father, reputed Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto, was not permitted to attend because he was serving a prison sentence in the United States. Police videographers filmed every guest at the funeral.^[11][12]
• January 3 - A homemade bomb exploded at the entrance to a court in the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria. Nobody was injured. Authorities say the 'Ndrangheta launched the attack, targeting the prosecutor's office due to its work confiscating mafia assets and ongoing appeals in cases against organized crime.^[13][14]
• January 3 - Carlos Beltrán Leyva, a drug lord with the Mexican Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, is arraigned following December 30 arrest in Culiacán, after he was stopped while driving with a forged license. The arrest came two weeks after Leyva's brother, cartel leader Arturo Beltrán Leyva, was killed in a gun battle with police.^[15][16]
• January 4 - A Weng'an court sentenced 18 people to up to 20-year prison terms for their involvement in organized crimes in China's Guizhou province. Twelve of the arrested were members of the Yushan Gang, who were convicted of organizing racketeering, illegal mining, operating gambling dens, intentional injuring, rape and other offenses.^[17][18]
• January 4 - A total of 29 people are killed in 13 separate drug-related attacks over a 24-hour span in Chihuahua, including two state police officers who were shot by six attackers. Among the slain are a female activist who led protests against alleged rights abuses by police and military deployed to fight organized crime.^[19]
• January 4 - Seven Tijuana policemen are detained for alleged ties to organized crime. The arrests stemmed from the interrogation of Luis Gilberto "El Gil" Sanchez Guerrero, an ex-officer arrested December 29, 2008, who allegedly led more than 10 kidnap and murder crews for Tijuana Cartel lieutenant Teodoro García Simental.^[20][21]
• January 5 - Boris "Bobi" Tsankov, a Bulgarian radio presenter and crime writer who wrote about local mafia affairs in a book published in November, is shot to death outside a fast food restaurant. Top Bulgaria crime bosses Krasimir Marinov and Stefan Bonev are arrested later that day.^[22][23]
• January 5 - Andrew Merola, the reputed leader of a North New Jersey faction of the Gambino crime family, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. Merola admitted he headed an organization involved in gambling, loan-sharking, scams and labor racketeering during a Newark hearing. He faces up to 20 years in prison.^[24][25]
• January 5 - Italian police arrest 14 alleged members of Mafia clans fighting to seize control of drug trafficking and extortion rackets in some of Naples's northern suburbs.^[26][27]
• January 6 - Piero Grasso, Italy's top anti-mafia prosecutor, announces a new "Mafia campaign" in response to the bombing of a Reggio Calabria courthouse by 'Ndrangheta on January 3. Grasso called for the strengthening of national investigation procedures to arrest criminals and seize their assets.^[28]
• January 6 - Convicted racketeer Mark Strodtman is sentenced to 31 years in prison in Greeley, Colorado, for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme. Strodtman was the first man convicted in Weld County under the state's organized crime statute.^[29][30]
• January 6 - Bing Yi Chen, the lieutenant of a Chinese crime organization, is sentenced to 35 years in prison for helping arrange the July 1994 murder of two Toronto men as a favor for a Hong Kong drug lord. Chen, also known as "Ah Ngai", was convicted on October 23, 2007.^[31][32]
• January 7 - Three Chinese mob leaders and four criminal gang members are executed in Shijiazhuang through lethal injection. The executions were the result of convictions for murder, gun sales, gambling and other crimes that were considered among the worst in the Hebei province in six decades.^[33][34]
• January 8 - Li Zhuang, a Chinese lawyer for suspected mafia boss Gong Gangmo, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for falsifying evidence and jeopardizing testimony in Gangmo's trial. State media previously said Gangmo's trial underscored major flaws in China's judicial system.^[35][36]
• January 8 - Pradeep Sharma, Mumbai's former police shootout specialist, and several other police officers were arrested for allegedly staging the death of Vashi gangster Ramnarayan Gupta. Authorities say Gupta was kidnapped and brought to a Versova park, where Sharma shot him to death.^[37][38]
• January 8 - Kenneth Dunn, a disbarred South Florida lawyer, was sentenced to 43 months in prison for laundering money and committing other crimes for a local mafia crew affiliated with the Bonanno crime family in New York City.^[39][40]
• January 9 - The dead bodies of Yulian "Kunfuto" Lefterov, a former member of the Bulgarian Mafia group SIC, and Ivaylo "Yozhi" Evtimov, leader of "The Impudent" gang, are found in the Plana Mountain in western Bulgaria.^[41]
• January 9 - A planned extradition to Italy of Marisa Merico, daughter of Calabrian godfather Emilio di Giovine and wife of henchman Bruno Merico, is delayed when she receives death threats.^[42][43]
• January 11 - Nicolo Romeo, a 72-year-old owner of an animal feed business, is shot to death outside the Italian town Corleone, allegedly because he refused to pay a pizzo to local mafia bosses.^[44][45]
• January 12 - Seventeen men with suspected ties to the 'Ndrangheta are arrested around Italy, including Rosarno and Bologna. Some were arrested for their alleged roles in violent clashes with immigrant workers, whereas others were already in prison on different charges. Among those arrested are suspected members of Pesce-Bellocco clan, one of the most powerful 'Ndrangheta clans, who were suspected of taking orders from clan ringleader Carmello Bellocco, who is serving a prison term for racketeering.^[46][47][48]
• January 12 - Alleged Chinese gang boss Yue Ning and 30 accomplices faces trial for a prostitution business inside Chongqing. Ning also faces charges of firearms possession and bribery, among other crimes.^[49][50]
• January 13 - Alleged mobster Nikolai Marinov, also known as "The Little Margin Brother", is officially declared a wanted man after he fails to appear in court on charges of conspiring to murder three people. His brother, Krasimir Marinov, was previously arrested for the murder of Boris Tsankov and his younger brother Nikolai Marinov has been missing ever since.^[51][52]
• January 14 - Anggodo Widjoj, a Chinese businessman, is arrested on suspicion of bribing two deputies with Indonesia's anti-mafia Corruption Eradication Commission. The commission announces $2.2 trillion have been lost from embezzlement within the organization.^[53][54]
• January 14 - United States federal prosecutors announce they will not retry alleged mafia don John A. Gotti on racketeering charges. Gotti had been free on $2 million bail since December 1, 2009, when a jury deadlocked during a fourth trial against him.^[55][56]
• January 27 - Paolo Di Mauro of the Camorra, wanted since 2003 and on the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy, is arrested in Barcelona (Spain).^[57]

November

• November 18 - Kiyoshi Takayama, the head of the Kodo-kai and the "de facto leader" of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza syndicate in Japan, was arrested.^[58]

December

• December 1 - Tadashi Irie, the head of the Takumi-gumi and the number three leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza syndicate in Japan, was arrested.^[59]

Arts and literature

• January - Gomorrah (2008) is released on Blu-ray through The Criterion Collection^[60]

See also

• Timeline of the Mexican Drug War
• List of years in organized crime

Bibliography

Notes

References

• Kelly, Robert J.; Schatzberg, Rufus; Chin, Ko-lin. Handbook of organized crime in the United States (1994 ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-28366-4. 
• Vilalta, C. (2011). "Monthly patterns, trends, and trajectories in the count of deaths related to organized crime, 2006-2010" (PDF). Conference at UAEM (in Spanish), April 26, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 17, 2011.